Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Selling Pieces Now Can Help in 2017?

The New York Yankees seem to be in sell mode before this
year’s August 1st trading and while we may not be seeing a fire sale
by any stretch of the imagination we could see a few key pieces moved before
it’s all said and done. This is important not only for the 2016 season with
eyes on the 2018 season and beyond but there is one key component that many are
missing in regards to the 2017 season as well. The Top 10 picks every season
are protected when offering contracts to players who received qualifying offers
and if the Yankees fall a bit more they could potentially get one of those
protected picks and get a free pass this winter in free agency.

Entering play on Monday 13 teams have records worse than the
Yankees record right now and one team, the Seattle Mariners, have an identical
record as the Bronx Bombers. The Yankees had the 14th worst record
in Major League Baseball with the dominating bullpen of No Runs DMC, a
resurgent season from Carlos Beltran and great performances from the likes of
CC Sabathia, Ivan Nova, Brett Gardner, Brian McCann and others. If some of
these players fall by the wayside and/or get traded this month or next month
that record could fall, and fall fast.

Now looking at the potential free agent class for the 2017
season you can see if it’s even worth it to “tank” the season for one of those
protected picks. Thanks to MLB Trade Rumors you can see that the cream of the
crop as far as the 2017 free agency market goes are Jonathan Lucroy (he has a
club option for 2017 that will likely be exercised), Wilson Ramos (like we need
another catcher), Edwin Encarnacion, possibly Yoenis Cespedes if he opts out of
his contract with the Mets, Ian Desmond (see my above comment about needing a
catcher), Jose Bautista (we need guys who can throw punches, not take them),
Andrew Cashner and a plethora of relievers you can read about at MLB Trade
Rumors. Oh and Stephen Drew. Stephen Drew sucks.

I don’t know about you but that list doesn’t necessarily
intrigue me all that much. There are only a handful of players who are under
that magical 30-year old mark and only a handful of players that I would
actually want on the Yankees going forward. Mark Melancon would be nice and
would definitely be worth the second round pick that New York would have to
give up presumably if Pittsburgh offers him a qualifying offer but aside from
that I’m just not blown away.

So would selling now help not only the 2017 season but also
the 2018 season and beyond? No, I don’t think that it would. Right now it looks
like there is no helping this 2016 club or the 2017 club either unfortunately
and in my opinion.